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Series on Justification from Eternity … Part I

Justification is an act of God’s grace, flowing from his sovereign good will and pleasure; the elect of God are said to be “justified by his grace”; and as if that expression was not strong enough to set forth the freeness of it, the word “freely” is added elsewhere; “Being justified freely by his grace”, #Tit 3:7 Ro 3:24. Justification is by many divines distinguished into active and passive. Active justification is the act of God; it is God that justifies. Passive justification is the act of God, terminating on the conscience of a believer, commonly called a transient act, passing upon an external object. It is not of this I shall now treat, but of the former; which is an act internal and eternal, taken up in the divine mind from eternity, and is an immanent, abiding one in it; it is, as Dr. Ames {4} expresses it, “a sentence conceived in the divine mind, by the decree of justifying.”

     Now, as before observed, as God’s will to elect, is the election of his people, so his will to justify them, is the justification of them; as it is an immanent act in God, it is an act of his grace towards them, is wholly without them, entirely resides in the divine mind, and lies in his estimating, accounting, and constituting them righteous, through the righteousness of his Son; and, as such, did not first commence in time, but from eternity.

 John Gill

Recently, I preached on Eternal Justification and in order to answer questions that naturally arise I’ve decided to take John Gill’s work paragraph by paragraph over a series of posts to answer those questions.

It must be kept in mind that though we are looking at the Baptist Gill there have been more than a few traditional Reformed who have held some form of the doctrine. The first prolocutor of the Westminster Assembly held to eternal Justification. The Scottish Divine Robert Traill held to this doctrine. The Dutch Reformed Abraham Kuyper held to Eternal Justification. Others had glimmerings of the doctrine in their works.

We gladly concede that the embrace of this doctrine has been a minority opinion in Reformed Church history and while that does give me some pause it does not move me to full stop. Truth does not come from counting noses and so we press on.

As to the quote above what should be drawn out is the difference between an immanent act of God and a transient act of God. To say that Justification is an immanent act of God is to say that the act of justifying was eternal and in the mind of God as decretal reality. To say that justification is a transient act of God is to say that the decretal reality of justification immanent and eternal as it is in the mind of God is is published to the consciousness of the one who was eternally justified so that they now are conversant with that divine reality.

Much of this debate gets roiled in the issue of time. All orthodox Reformation believers understand and embrace that eternity conditions time and not time eternity. That is all justification from eternity argues for in what it embraces. It is the recognition that what God has decreed as an immanent and eternal act in His mind is a irresistible reality that time is only scrambling to catch up to in order to instantiate.  Scripture gives us hints of this when it is said of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 13:8;

 the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world then it is no stretch to insist that the saints elected in Christ stood justified likewise from the foundation of the world. Their corporeal mortal lives only awaited the time when that eternal and immanent act of God of justification would become a transient act once the Spirit applied what was accomplished on the Cross being a certitude from eternity.

To insist on eternal Justification is only to agree with the Scripture that
God calleth those things which be not as though they were (Rmns. 4:17).

To believe that God was gracious to His people before He was gracious to His people is a concept we find throughout Scripture;

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:  4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Notice just as earlier the Lord Christ is slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8) so God’s people are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Notice also the language “having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.” In light of that statement is it really so difficult to see that justification comes with adoption? Especially when it is said in Ephesians 1 that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Is not Justification a spiritual blessing?

Notice finally, the last sentence that notes that Justification did not first begin in but from eternity. No Reformed believer holds that Justification only becomes a real reality when someone is converted as if the decree and cross are waiting for their activation from someone saying the magical words “Jesus please come into my heart.”

 

O’Fallon on Propaganda … McAtee Analysis of O’Fallon

A brief review and some analysis is provided for the link below.

Historical Amnesia | Public Occurrences, Ep. 72 – Sovereign Nations

O’Fallon begins the discussion on the way some propaganda works by noting two aspects of propaganda;

1.) Fertile Fallacy

A truth that is only linguistically true while being substantively false; hence a lie.

Example — Biden received 7 million more votes than Trump in Election
2020.

This is a true statement but doesn’t press on to ask questions about the illegitimate nature of those 7 million votes.

Another example not given of this common technique is to quote someone out of context thus making the quote say something substantially different than the author’s original intent.

A fertile fallacy then is any statement that is only true in a very narrow sense while then promulgated in a very broad sense that is contrary to true truth.

2.) Reflexivity

This is the fertile fallacy repeated over and over again through a million media outlets. It is the mean by which the fertile fallacy becomes “THE TRUTH.” This again is another aspect of how propaganda works. It is basically telling the big lie over and over again to the point that the rank and file believe it.

This reflexivity propaganda can succeed for three reasons

I.) Westerners are a low information people who desire to be entertained and amused over against doing our own research and deep reading.

II.) Westerners having attended government grade, and high schools as well as government University and graduate schools have little to no capacity to think critically or in world and life view categories. As such they are overwhelmingly eclectic and conglomerate thinkers unable to reason their way out of a brown paper bag. In terms of thinking capacity Westerners are not much superior to the Pavlov’s dogs. Propaganda works best on slightly educated people (eclectic thinkers) who have never been trained to think critically.

III.) Reflexivity is also driven by a way of life that requires people to be so busy that they literally don’t have time to get their information from any place else than the lügenpresse. This is not accidental. A way of life has been pursued and created by the pagan elites for generations that has yielded a population which is kept so busy with automated type work that they do not have time to think.

Per O’Fallon The fertile fallacy combined with Reflexivity has brought us to the point of being on the cusp of global war. O’Fallon insists that each step along the way in the past 2 years has been used to bring us to the next step. From George Floyd and the rise of BLM, to the Deep State Virus, to masks, to the quackzine, to now the brewing war with Russia each step has been the logical propaganda extension to the previous step as all driven by the teleological end goal of the Great Reset and Agenda 2030. We are being herded like cattle to conclusions long arrived upon by the Deep State elite.

If O’Fallon is correct it would seem to necessitate that O’Fallon believes that Putin and Russia are at the bottom about bringing the Great Reset to pass. Remember, the first goal of the Great Reset is to chop America off at the knees so as to bring her down to the level of other nations. The Great Reset requires a NWO and a NWO can’t exist in a unipolar world where the USA is the only real power. Therefore, the USA has to be brought low in order for the Great Reset to get off the ground. What better way to do that than to,

1.) Wreck the economy by irresponsible spending that can only lead to drastic inflation

2.) End our energy independence. This is clearly seen by the ending the Pennsylvania Oil Keystone Pipe line as well as the diminishing of the intense pursuit for natural gas. Our global elites don’t want America to be energy independent because the Great Reset requires a leveling of all nations.

3.) Erasure of borders thus bringing in the third world thus diluting the population that made America… America

4.) Rabidly push polyglot marriages via the tool of reflexivity thus normalizing that which throughout Western history had been seen as abnormal

5.) Pursue the Green New Deal, thus

6.) Pursue policies that will push people into urban areas

We are already far into the Great Reset. More of these policies are sure to follow in the next few years.
You will own nothing and be Happy

1828 Webster’s Dictionary, Rush & Otto, and Dr. Peter Hammond on Polyglot Marriage

ADUL’TERY, noun [Latin adulterium. See Adulterate.]

1. Violation of the marriage bed; a crime, or a civil injury, which introduces, or may introduce, into a family, a spurious offspring.

ADUL’TERATE, verb transitive [Latin adultero, from adulter, mixed, or an adulterer; ad and alter, other.]

To corrupt, debase, or make impure by an admixture of baser materials; as, to adulterate liquors, or the coin of a country.

ADUL’TERATE, verb intransitive To commit adultery. obsolete

ADUL’TERATE, adjective Tainted with adultery; debased by foreign mixture.

ADUL’TERATED, participle passive Corrupted; debased by a mixture with something of less value.

1828 Webster’s Dictionary

____

 

[Otto] I don’t really know what the church today sermonizes against. Once we… when we really come to it, all sins seem to have shriveled down to racism.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Otto Scott] Beyond that there is no sin…

[Rushdoony] Yes. That is very good. That is about the only sin that is left. And that is an odd thing to choose as a sin, because one of the characteristics of people all over the world has been a preference for their own. People prefer their own families. They prefer their own nationality or their own race, which is entirely legitimate as long as they don’t abuse and mistreat others.

I believe that the world has seen more racism in this century than ever before precisely because we are trying to equalize everything and we are trying to obscure the differences and say they don’t exist. And when you do that, you are going to create a situation where there will be a bootlegged and resentful recognition of differences.

[Scott] Well, you drive underground what doesn’t belong underground. The business of justice, the business of treating people fairly, the business of equality before law and meritocracy, so to speak, of making opportunities open to all, the whole idea of a civilized society is based on the idea of mutual respect. But respect is one thing. A denial of reality is something else. If in order to get along or to placate we have to pretend that everyone has the same intellect and intelligence, the same ability then we have downgraded all intelligence and all ability.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Scott] It is usually a question of let’s you and he be equal. Not you and I.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Well, by obscuring the fact of differences, what we have done is to create a climate in which any awareness of reality is gone.

[Scott] Well, it is dishonest.

[Rushdoony] Yes. You are not living in a real world if you don’t recognize differences and say he is better than I am. He is of another color. And he or she is not as good as I am in this particular field where I am good.

R.J. Rushdoony & Otto Scott
Pocket College
From the Easy Chair — Envy [00:24:42]  

In a Sermon by the missionary to the persecuted Church, Dr. Peter Hammond of Rhodesia and now South Africa said in a 2017 sermon;

“Considering how much the Scriptures teach concerning marriage and the many passages forbidding cross-cultural and inter-racial marriage with unbelievers and being unequally yoked it is extra-ordinary that there is so little teaching and preaching on this important matter. Marriage does not just involve two individuals. It involves two families and we need to honor our parents and seek the guidance of our church leaders when we marry. Those who become unequally yoked are being short sighted and they are being selfish. They are neither considering their ancestors nor their descendants nor are they placing God’s Word above their emotions. The first minister I had challenge me on this was (Black-African) Rev .  F. Tibsi, Zulu minister of ???. I heard him preach ‘those who marry outside their race are not honoring their parents, nor are they loving their neighbors as themselves, nor are they loving their children who will belong to neither the race of their Mother or their Father,’ and I thought, ‘this Zulu minister is being more honest than many of the white cowards I had discussed this with.

The Bible teaches that God seeks godly offspring (Malachi 2:15). (Here Hammond cites Genesis 24, 26, 18, Deuteronomy 7:3f and Joshua 23, Ezra 9, Nehemiah 13.) The law of God warns believers from following that which is popular and when you think how much this (inter-racial marriage) has been promoted in the adverts, on the billboards, in the films, in the textbooks, in the churches — when you see how this is so promoted by the world you know it is evil.

(Here Hammond quotes from the Book of Common Prayer on the Marriage Ceremony.)

‘I REQUIRE and charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it. For be ye well assured, that if any persons are joined together otherwise than as God’s Word doth allow, their marriage is not lawful.’

And for 1950 years that was considered in the Church of England to have ruled out the possibility of marrying across racial lines.

But now, at the latter part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century along with legalizing homosexuality, homosexual marriages, homosexual ministers, along with pornography, abortion, and all other men’s evil we have at last discovered that the for the last 1950 years has been wrong but we in this enlightened age have discovered what real marriage is and when the bible says, ‘you shouldn’t marry people of other races,’ it is not talking about that it is actually saying we should not marry a person of another faith even though many of those actually turn out to be frauds as well. Isn’t it interesting, many people believe the spirit of the age on this matter when you know they are lying about everything else.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/saplayer/playpopup.asp?SID=72017429140

Start at 35:39 time stamp.

Then there is this;

https://archive.fo/aUwpv

Two Templates Through Which One Might Read Russia-Ukraine

Template #1

Vladimir is an old styled Russian Nationalist who believes in Russia. He understands that Russia is in danger. Birthrates are well below replacement rates. Further, the NWO via NATO keeps hemming Russia in by absorbing or threatening to absorb former countries in the historic sphere of Russian influence. In 2008 Putin’s Russia made NATO’s ability to swallow Georgia impossible by military action. In 2008 NATO passed the Bucharest declaration putting Georgia and Ukraine on path for NATO membership. Putin demanded that the promise from our American President, that NATO would NOT move toward them be honored. The answer was “no,” so Putin invaded Georgia as he had threatened to do.

Now, in 2022, on the 8th year anniversary of the coup that replaced Russian simpatico Yanukovych for a Western sympathetic replacement Putin finally sets matters right by rolling in to Ukraine. NATO poked the bear with Ukraine and again Putin responded as he stated he would. Like him or not, he keeps his word.

In doing so Putin is merely practicing what these united States would be doing by kicking hostile actors out of Mexico or Cuba (wink), thus following the long established Monroe Doctrine. This would all be in keeping with old fashioned real politick. In this template Putin’s actions would find a sympathetic ear from many Biblical Christians in the West who see the West as the current incarnation of New World Order evil and who are hopeful that Putin might be a world leader who might be counted on to oppose the designs of the Great Reset of the NWO. This understanding  sees Eastern Ukraine east of the Dnipro river as being largely Russian in terms of population and so lies in Mother Russia’s orbit.  As such Putin has every right to protect his people against the designs of the Globalist West.

Template #2

Vladimir Putin is a puppet of the New World Order schema. Remember that in order for the Great Reset to go forward the US has to be weakened and leveled so that it can be a satellite of the NWO. In this schema Putin’s actions (as possibly combined with China in a seizure of Taiwan) have the effect of weakening the US thus leveling it so as to fit it in a NWO globalist schema. From a NWO perspective conflict here also has the advantage of continuing to reduce the white global population as white Russians and white Ukrainians kill one another in conflict. This template finds anything that weakens the US as a global power as well as reducing the percentage of white people on the planet to be desirous so that a NWO can more easily arise. In this scenario Putin and Biden are doing the devil’s work. (This scheme finds Biden also being a puppet of the NWO.)

A Word From Eugene Genovese On The Irrationality of Academia

“Today we face the dangerous irrationality of a self-styled postmodernism. It is more dangerous than the pretense of ethical neutrality in social science and historical scholarship because, despite all pretense, it quickly passes into nihilism. Normally, cynicism and fanaticism combat each other and represent, as it were, opposing heresies. Yet, marvelous today, they now march in lockstep. we are being told that since objectivity rests only with a God who does not exist, we should scorn it as the ideology of the oppressors.
 
 

Those who denounce objectivity as a fraud in the service of oppression are offering flagrant mendacity as a Higher Law. And since just about everyone, except non-Hispanic, heterosexual, white males, is today a victim of oppression, we are invited to present our subjectivity — our ‘feelings,’ which usually appear as hatreds — as a substitute for a non-existent truth. I make no apology for the harshness of these remarks. In accordance with the fashion of parading one’s feelings as a contribution to every discussion of every subject, I shall admit to being outraged at hearing endless whines about oppression from American intellectuals — black as well as white, female as well as male. For since they (we) rank among the top one or two percent of the world’s most privileged people, the whines, may fairly be judged as obscene. But then, I suppose, I am merely revealing my own status as an oppressor by invoking an untenable standard of statistical objectivity, when I should be demonstrating my sensitivity to the precious feeling of the insulted and injured. Unfortunately, never having met a human being who did not feel insulted and injured in this vale of tears, my capacity for compassion has been badly stunted. Atheist that I am, I learned that much from Christian teaching on original sin and human depravity, which has been confirmed by all historical experience of which I am aware, even if it is no longer in fashion in mainstream Christian churches.”

Eugene Genovese
The Southern Front; History and Politics in the Culture War